Page - (000026) - in Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development

countries tobuild resilienceandadapt toclimatechange throughfinancingprojects andprogrammes that focus onvulnerable communities. TheGreenClimateFund9 was setup inanticipationof theParisAgreement tomobilize fundingand invest in low-emission andclimate-resilient development. It intends to address bothmitiga- tion and adaptation equally. Importantly all these funds and facilities involve concrete strategies and action by all governments, the private sector, civil society, as well as individual citizens. But clearly global climate action is not limited to these funds. TheParisAgreement fully recognizeswhat also emerged from theUNConfer- enceonFinancing forDevelopment10: public fundswill not be sufficient to tackle climate change, not to prevent it nor to adapt to its effects. In this regard public- private partnerships and private initiatives are envisaged to play a key role. Gov- ernments are invited to ensure an enabling environment and level playingfield for initiativesof theprivate sector andcivil society.Thesehaveemergedover thepast decadeand include social andenvironmental impact investing, corporate responsi- bility to contribute to sustainable development, market oriented social initiatives and so on. The G8 has published several documents regarding the promise of impact investing11 and theWorldBusiness Council for SustainableDevelopment hasbeeninstrumental indevelopingtheinclusionofnatural resourcesaccountingin businesspractices.12Civil society initiatives range fromfair trade toclimate-smart agricultural practices (the range of initiatives is staggering), as is demonstrated in theSocialEnterprisesWorldForum.13 Climate change is a complex issue encompassingphysical, technological, insti- tutional, economic, social and political spheres. For a sustainable future for all of us, it is essential thatwe identify thebest andmost suitablemeasuresandmake the right choices for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. This is where evaluation comes in. 1.1 CriticalRole ofEvaluation Evaluation is essential for learning and for reflectingonwhetherweare taking the right actions for the right things for current and future generations. Evaluation of climatechangepolicies,mitigationandadaptation actionshelpsus assess progress on the complex challenges we are facing. Evaluation also helps us identify what 9http://www.greenclimate.fund/home 10See http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/ffd3/ – theUNConference for Financing forDevelopment took place inAddisAbaba, 13–16 July 2015. 11See http://www.socialimpactinvestment.org/ for the work sponsored by the G8 on impact investing. 12See http://www.wbcsd.org for theWorldBusinessCouncil for SustainableDevelopment. 13See http://sewf2015.org/about-sewf/ for theSocialEnterprisesWorldForum. 1 EvaluatingClimateChangeAction forSustainableDevelopment: Introduction 5